what do I do with these old craftsman 'shapers'?

[Carl Beckett]

For some reason these seem to follow me home. I have two old craftsman 'shapers'. They are cast iron, and have a nice mechanism for raising and lowering the bits. A 1/2 hp motor with them.

I want them out of my shop. Or I want to 'do' something with them. (may very well end up in the scrap pile if not).

I tried selling them on CL and one guy was 'considering' one at $40, but was a no show. They dont ship very well so if you are in TX and can use them... well, likely isnt going to happen.

So what would you do with them?? Ideas?

[Paul Cahill]

This caught my eye as I have one too. Tried CL once, with no response, and was getting ready to try again.

Paul

[Carl Beckett]

We could pile them all together and make a bon fire and have a weenie roast.... but they dont burn too well.......

I was suggesting they might convert to a router table top - but no takers on that.

The lift mechanism is nice and smooth.

The motor is under powered (and useful for something else if you need a 1/2hp motor).

There is a fence mechanism, if someone wanted it.

Otherwise... .Im drawing blanks.

[Jeff Duncan]

I don't know but you may want to try over at OWWM and see if you get a taker?

good luck,
JeffD

[Dick Brown]

DANG!!
Always wanted one of those to go with the Craftsman tilt top saw, Monkey Wards scroll saw, and a lot of other stuff I have around here that never gets used! Tell you what, after much deliberation, I would take it off your hands as a donation to my addiction for old iron. You pay the shipping to Central Oregon. This may be your best chance!! What do you mean "NO"?
Dick

[Mike Cutler]

Carl

Do they still work? and will they use "standard" shaper heads, or do they require Craftsman only heads.
I ask only because I need to do some trim moulding for a house project. Nothing exotic, just stuff I can't buy. I also need to make some doors and drawers for the kitchen project I'm currently doing
If they'll get me through a couple hundred linear feet of trim moulding, and doors I'd like to know more about them.

I've got three PC 8529's and a Festool OF2200. A light duty shaper would help me out.

[Doug Herzberg]

I still use mine from time to time. Sometimes the only cutter I have in the shape I want is for this machine. As I recall, it's a 1/2" spindle and the lift mechanism and fence operation are very smooth, as others have said. With bushings, you can use more commonly available cutters, but 1/2 hp bogs down pretty quickly.

[Peter Quinn]

I took my fathers when he retired and moved south. He couldn't give it away, and he did try. I though he was going to cry at the idea of scraping it. He gave it to me! Made him feel good, I couldn't say no, one more thing in my way.....sooo...I gave it a test. The emerson motor it came with belongs on a sewing machine, and not a very good one at that, not on a power tool. Bogged down hopelessly. I swapped it out for a 3/4 HP tefc grizzly that works like a champ. I have a 3/4" bore cabinet set, bush up the 1/2" spindle, set it up to cope, never pull the cope cutters off. I put some rocker locking casters on it, shove it in the corner, it now lives to cope, and for that its great. I suppose I could do other things with it, but I have two other far more capable machines and mostly larger tooling. In the right hands and circumstance its a decent little machine that I feel would beat a router table at many tasks. I seriously considered using a bridgeport to make it into a router table, but I'm not actually that ambitious.

So assuming your tearful sentimental father didn't give you all of these, I'd keep one and juice it up as a dedicated coper, assuming also that you have other shapers to go with it and tooling worth spinning. I'd melt the rest. Or bolt them together and market them as a 3 head machine? Sometimes weird works.:D I'm not too sentimental about machines and I have no longing for the "glorious old iron past", so if you don't need a coper, and can't find a local buyer at or above the scrap price, I sell them all by weight. If you can ship them to me for free I'll be happy to run them up to the local scrap yard here and send you the money! Sort of like having a friend put down your dog if you can't bare to do it yourself. Don't get me wrong, I'll keep my dog till the end, but a machine for which I have no use has no place.

[Carl Beckett]

You know.... They would make a half decent boot anchor (that's how much emotional attachment there is)

I have two. Thought It would be neat to set them up one for rails, one for stiles. But no room on my shop.

[Peter Quinn]

You know.... They would make a half decent boot anchor (that's how much emotional attachment there is)

I have two. Thought It would be neat to set them up one for rails, one for stiles. But no room on my shop.


I can see the craigslist add now..."Pair of shapers, twins, can't be separated, free to good home...or bad home....or anybody that will actually show up...guy in CT has twin sister available too......"